ProfileAssociate Professor (Tenure-Track)
School of Computer Science and Technology
Harbin Engineering University
📧 Email: cscaoyue@hrbeu.edu.cn
🏫 Address: No. 145 Nantong Street, Nangang District, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, 150001, P.R. China
Dr. Yue Cao is currently an Associate Professor (Tenure-Track) at the School of Computer Science and Technology, Harbin Engineering University. He received his Ph.D. degree from the School of Computer Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology in December 2024, under the supervision of Prof. Wangmeng Zuo. His research interests include Computer Vision, Image Restoration, Computational Photography, and AI-based Image Signal Processing (AI-ISP). He has published over 10 papers in top-tier international conferences and journals, including CVPR, ECCV, and AAAI.
Computer Vision
Image Restoration
Computational Photography
AI-based Image Signal Processing (AI-ISP)
Low-Light Imaging
Sensor Noise Modeling
Image Quality Assessment
[12] Yue Cao, Sizhao Li, Liguo Zhang. "Robust Noise Modeling for Spike Camera via Time-Interval Quantification and Spike-DSLR Multimodal Dataset in Low-Light Imaging". AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), CCF A, 2026
[11] Yue Cao, Ming Liu, Shuai Liu, Xiaotao Wang, Lei Lei, Wangmeng Zuo. "Physics-Guided ISO-Dependent Sensor Noise Modeling for Extreme Low-Light Photography". IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), CCF A, 2023
[10] Yue Cao, Zhaolin Wan, Dongwei Ren, Zifei Yan, Wangmeng Zuo. "Incorporating Semi-Supervised and Positive-Unlabeled Learning for Boosting Full Reference Image Quality Assessment". IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), CCF A, 2022
[9] Xiaohe Wu, Ming Liu, Yue Cao, Dongwei Ren, Wangmeng Zuo. "Unpaired Learning of Deep Image Denoising". European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV), CCF B, 2020
[5] Jiazhi Du, Dongwei Ren, Yue Cao, Wangmeng Zuo. "In-training Restoration Models Matter: Data Augmentation for Degraded-reference Image Quality Assessment". ACM Multimedia (ACM MM) Workshop, CCF A Workshop, 2022
[4] Abdelrahman Abdelhamed, Mahmoud Afifi, Radu Timofte, Michael S. Brown, Yue Cao. "NTIRE 2020 Challenge on Real Image Denoising: Dataset, Methods and Results". IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) Workshops, CCF A Workshop, 2020
[2] Shunyu Yao, Yue Cao, Yabo Zhang, Wangmeng Zuo. "Misalignment Insensitive Perceptual Metric for Full Reference Image Quality Assessment". Chinese Conference on Pattern Recognition and Computer Vision (PRCV), CCF C, 2023
[6] Yue Cao, Jinhe He, Yu Zhang, Gang Lu, Shigang Liu, Xiaojun Wu. "DnM3Net: Multi-Scale & Multi-Level Shuffle-CNN Via Multi-Level Attention for Image Denoising". IEEE International Conferences on Ubiquitous Computing & Communications (IUCC), EI, 2019
[8] Yue Cao, Xiaohe Wu, Shuran Qi, Xiao Liu, Zhongqin Wu, Wangmeng Zuo. "Pseudo-ISP: Learning Pseudo In-camera Signal Processing Pipeline from A Color Image Denoiser". Neurocomputing, CCF C, IF: 5.394, 2024
[7] Yue Cao, Shigang Liu, Yali Peng, Jun Li. "DenseUNet: Densely Connected UNet for Electron Microscopy Image Segmentation". IET Image Processing, CCF C, IF: 2.064, 2020
[3] Pengju Liu, Hongzhi Zhang, Yue Cao, Shigang Liu, Dongwei Ren, Wangmeng Zuo. "Learning Cascaded Convolutional Networks for Blind Single Image Super-Resolution". Neurocomputing, CCF C, IF: 5.394, 2020
[1] Yali Peng, Yue Cao, Shigang Liu, Jian Yang, Wangmeng Zuo. "Progressive Training of Multi-level Wavelet Residual Networks for Image Denoising". arXiv preprint arXiv:2020.12422, 2020
[2] Winner Award in Track 1 rawRGB, NTIRE 2020 Challenge on Real Image Denoising, New Trends in Image Restoration and Enhancement Workshop, CVPR 2020, International Academic Award, 2020
Awardees: Yue Cao, Zhilu Zhang, Wangmeng Zuo
[1] 3rd Place Award in Track 2 sRGB, NTIRE 2020 Challenge on Real Image Denoising, New Trends in Image Restoration and Enhancement Workshop, CVPR 2020, International Academic Award, 2020
Awardees: Yue Cao, Zhilu Zhang, Wangmeng Zuo
[4] Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Youth Program), "Self-supervised Imaging Noise Modeling and Multimodal Denoising for Marine Environment Detection in the South China Sea", 60,000 RMB, 2026, Principal Investigator
[3] National Natural Science Foundation of China (Youth Program), "Research on Adaptive Imaging Noise Modeling Methods under Non-uniform Illumination Scenarios", Grant No.: 62502112, 300,000 RMB, 2025, Principal Investigator
[2] Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Original Exploration Project - Quantum Technology), "Research on Fault-Tolerant Technology of NISQ Devices for Quantum Circuit Cutting", Grant No.: 3072025YC0602, 100,000 RMB, 2025, Principal Investigator
[1] JKW Major Project, 2025, Key Participant (Ranked 2nd)
Committee Member, Youth Working Committee, Heilongjiang Artificial Intelligence Society
Journal Reviewer: IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (T-PAMI), IEEE Transactions on Image Processing (T-IP)
Conference Reviewer: CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, NeurIPS, AAAI, ACM MM, ICML
Welcome graduate students and senior undergraduates to join the RAIM Group (Restore Any Image Model). Our goal is to be Stargazers — not only gaining stars on GitHub, but becoming observers who can capture starlight in low-light scenarios. Just as restoring images in low-light environments requires persistent effort, we hope to bring hidden details back to light through continuous exploration.
Aspiring to publish papers in CCF A-tier conferences
Strong interest in image restoration, low-level vision, and AI imaging
Believing in both "ten years of dedication" and "overnight success"
Willing to maintain regular communication, meeting every 1-2 weeks
Proactive in discussing problems rather than working in isolation
Mutual growth between advisor and student
Having your own ideas and judgments
Daring to question, explore, and innovate
Patient in reading papers and understanding algorithms
Diligent in coding and running experiments
Capable of both rigorous academic presentations and casual conversations
If you are an undergraduate interested in joining:
✅ Requirement: Academic ranking in top 50% of your major
✅ Guidance: Paper writing, academic competitions (e.g., NTIRE)
✅ Benefits: Understanding research, developing skills, exploring interests
✨ Taking every discussion seriously, guiding every project with care
✨ Respecting your ideas, encouraging your exploration
✨ Providing resource support and creating growth opportunities
✨ No "996" culture — research should be efficient and healthy
Doing research is like being a person:
Have vision to see the frontier of the field;
Have planning to know where to go;
Have perspective not limited by temporary gains and losses;
Have resilience to withstand experimental failures;
Have ambition to challenge higher goals.
If you identify with these principles, please contact me:
📧 Email: cscaoyue@hrbeu.edu.cn
Let's explore the vast ocean of computer vision together!
